Stranded in the Pacific: Chapter 5
Stephanie's P.O.V After hearing what Platina said, my mind reeled. I have heard something similar that one of the demigod is going to Japan, and apparently that demigod is stupid enough to try the stygian mist, resulting in a huge explosion. Thankfully, the gods manipulated the mist so that it was referred to as Fukushima-Daiichi Nuclear Disaster. Platina is lucky to have performed training with the stygian mist. The question is who is she practicing with? Who is her teacher? Is she self-taught? Anyways, we headed back to base camp, since it's already 13:50, and the crab had lost us, so they retreated back into their base. As soon as everyone is back in the base camp, Platina did a headcount to make sure that everyone of us is inside. Mary, Gary, Adam, Bella, me, Josh and myself are in here. That means... "Annabeth is missing!" Platina yelled. The other members became alert of what is going on. "We need to search for Annabeth immediately!" Platina declared. "Don't forget us!" The chipmunks said from behind us. I glanced behind me. The chipmunks were dressed in athletic sports gear. Their shirt is Nike, with a tick above the logo, and they wore a miniature sports pants, which make them look more cute, and they each wear round sunglasses. "Who's ready to rock and roll?" Alvin yelled. "Well, we could use your help." Platina said. "But you have to promise you will behave." "But... what if we have to fight?" Alvin asked. "You don't have to fight." Platina answered. "You chipmunks just stay back." "I mean, let's just say that you're kidnapped." Alvin began. Platina and the rest of us listened. "Then, you guys are on the verge of dying, but we can't do anything because you have told us to stay put. 'Alvin, stay put!'" Alvin copied Dave's accent of grounding him. "Well, it's okay as long as you know your limits." Josh and Platina said to them. "Alright!" The chipmunks ran around in circles before jumping on Josh's, Adam's and my shoulders. Apparently, we are already used to the chipmunks being naughty and all, especially when the chipmunks are still kids, which needs to be guided to a straight path in their lives. There's no doubt that the chipmunks were still not behaving, but Platina had thought that the chipmunks were adults so Platina was treating them as an adult. We need to tell Platina that, but this is not a good time to do so because we are looking for Annabeth, and as we all know, Platina gets serious whenever someone gets taken away and will do anything to find him/her. Anyways, we just walked past a tree with a bee hive, and I looked at the bee hive closely. The bees have a pointed tail, which is the stingers that projects powerful poison from its tail, and this is not just any bee. This is a wasp, a tracker jacker. But this one has been genetically engineered further to shoot out stingers from its tail, but each wasp is only able to shoot one stinger as the wasp will die instantly upon doing that, but its lethality is very high. Just one sting, and you could faint within 5-10 seconds, and die within 60 seconds, unless you act quickly and prevent the spread of its venom before it's too late. We tiptoed past the bee hive, since we know that the wasps are very sensitive to vibrations. Just one tremor could make all the wasp in the hive to come chasing you and eventually leading to death, due to the amount of toxins it has in its stinger. We have to be careful not to step on any fallen branches because it can make noise and therefore triggers the deadly wasp's attention. Everyone is tiptoeing around the hive silently, and we just keep it that way. Mary have to be very careful and very slow because just one mis step and that would make vibration on the ground and the wasps would swarm us and kill all of us. "Look out!" Alvin screamed from my shoulders. "Alvin...." I was beginning to scold him but was cut out due to the wasp broke out of the nest and began swarming us. Josh instinctively created a yellow energy shield to shield us from the wasps. But one managed to enter and it stung Josh. Josh cringed in pain while Bella substitute to make the energy shield while Mary grabbed a piece of cloth and quickly wrapped it around Josh's infected limb tightly so that the venom of the bee doesn't spread throughout his whole body. That was very quick thinking of Mary, to be able to do such a thing. Josh kept cringing in pain while clutching the infected part with his hands. Josh grabbed a knife from his pocket and started slicing the healthy part of the skin, and I wonder why he had done that? The tracker jacker wasps kept trying to get inside, and the wasp that had infected Josh died instantly. The chipmunks blamed Alving for this incident, and for the first time, Alvin does look remorseful. "I'm sorry." Alvin said. "I didn't mean it..." "Not now, Alvin!" Simon said. "Now help Bella defeat the wasps!" "On it!" Alvin said, as he sprung into action. The wasps had its attention on Alvin. As Alvin ran towards the wasps, the wasps positioned themselves to fire the stinger venoms on their tail, and once they fires, Alvin quickly swerved sideways to avoid contact with the stingers, and the wasps died instantly once they fired their poisonous projectile. Bella can't keep up the shield forever, so we decided to make a run for it once Bella has let go of the force field. "Ready?" Mary asked, carrying the unconscious Josh. Me, Platina, Gary, Adam, and Bella nodded. "Now, Bella!" Platina ordered. As soon as Bella let go of the shield, we started to make a run for it. We decided to stick together since the chance of surviving is very slim if we split up, so we decided to stick together. We ran through the mist, through the woods, through the darkness and the shadows just to avoid the angry wasps which has a lethality potential. The wasps took aim with their tails and they shot another bunch of stinger venoms, but Bella successfully created a brief shield that blocks the projectile of the stingers. The wasp that fired their stingers died instantly, and as soon as the other wasps found out about the wasp that died from using their weapons, they started to retreat back to their nests. Josh's P.O.V Memories flashed in my eyes, from the time the research paper was stolen by Eddia and Michelle, both parents who wanted to make experiments, but they found no one to do experiment with, so they do it with their daughters. Why don't they do it on me? They should have done it on me so I wouldn't stuck being a midget! Someone shook me, and it's Mary. My right arm that had got bitten by the tracker jacker were bound very tightly so that the venom doesn't spread through my whole body. "You alright?" Mary asked. I looked at my arm, which is swelling yellow. "No, I'm not." I told her. "You should know to better keep quiet, Alvin!" Platina chided him. Now, looking at Alvin, he migh show remorse at one time, but the next thing you know is he's doing it again. "Sorry." Alvin said. I don't know how to translate his apologies. Could this be a sincere apology? Or is he just looking sincere? "Next time, there will be no sorry for you." Platina said, and she turned towards the chipmunks. "Now, this goes to all of you! If any of you chipmunks don't behave, then we will have no choice but to exclude you from our group, understand!" "Yes, Ms. Platina!" Alvin, Simon and Theodore replied. "Good, now we have to find Annabeth." Platina said, as we trudged through the thick, dense forest. After walking a couple hundred of meters, we saw something strange, a glowing tree, surrounded by little trees, the size of a children's toys, and there's pockmarks that looked like a rabbit's tunnel. The pockmarks were actually quite small, the size of the Cu Chi tunnels in Vietnam, but this one is a little bigger. I wonder if there's any inhabitants around this village, it seems abandoned. I glanced right, and I saw a bunch of houses made of wood, and they are only strong enough to resist medium winds, not earthquakes. Some of the houses have roads paved from their doorstep and trees were nicely planted around the house, and also streetlights that turns on when it's night time. I looked at my wristwatch. It says 14:50. I was beginning to worry about Annabeth, and as soon as I peeked down the hole, possibilities rushed inside my head. Could Annabeth be there? If she is down there, how would she survive? I stepped forward, and I began to hear this extremely faint noises of someone groaning. The noise is so small that it's close to inaudible. Even my friends don't even realize that they're hearing it. I stepped closer into one of the holes and neared my ears to listen from the sounds from down the hole. Another groaning sound was made, but this time it's closer, and it appears to be a girl, but her voice didn't sound like Annabeth, it sounded like a monster. I looked down at the hole, and just then, monsters burst out of the hole. I could tell that they're laistrygonian giants, but it appears they're all female. Looks like the female laistrygonian giants live underground. The female giants hissed at us, and they started charging at us. We charged back, drawing our weapons. The giants waited, but one is stupid enough to charge at us. Mary stopped the giant with her huge hands and ripped her apart. "Now, who else wants a piece of this?" Mary challenged the female laistrygonian giants. The giants look afraid, and they retreated back into their underground caves. More groaning can be heard from down the tunnels, and me and Platina came to investigate. This time I have the feeling that we should go down there. I listened to the voice one more time, and indeed the groaning was Annabeth's voice. "Guys, we have good news." Platina announced. "We have located Annabeth!" The chipmunks sighed their relief. "Now, can we go back to the base camp now?" Theodore asked. "I am very hungry." "NO!!" Platina snapped. "We haven't rescued Annabeth yet!" "Oh, right." Theodore said. More groaning from below the pit, and I suddenly feel pain from my right hand. The piece of cloth is about to come loose and I am so very afraid if it come loose, it will affect my whole body. "There's one more thing that we can do." Mary said, holding a sword in her right hand. I stumbled backwards in surprise. "What?" "Cutting your arm off." She simply said. I jumped in surprise. "Mary, you're not serious, are you?" I asked her. "I'm afraid I am, Josh. Your right hand is beyond repair, look at it!" I looked at my right hand, and it's swelling red. I should keep the piece of cloth binded tightly in my infected limb, or else the venom would spread. I wished there's going to be a cure, but it's already been infected so very badly. Even if my hands are cut off, I still wished that there's a way to cure it. But wait.... My studies of genetics... There might be a way to regenerate my lost arm, but that would require a sample of my own DNA, and a sample of the cells from my right hand, which I had done earlier. But if there's a better way, why would I risk doing this one? "I hope you know what you're doing, Mary." I told her. "There should be another way, maybe Bella can heal me." Mary held her sword up high. "I'm afraid not." And as soon as she brought her sword down, Bella suddenly yelled. "DON'T!" Mary stopped what she is doing. "There is a way, and that is healing. However, this requires a very quick healing." Bella said, as she placed her hands on my infected limb, and soon enough, the swelling receded after 2 minutes and my hands were back to normal again. I removed the piece of cloth that is used to bind my infected arm. "Thanks, sister." I hugged her. "I owe you one." "No problem." Bella said. "Now let's rescue Annabeth!" So, we decided to enter the pockmarks, but apparently it's too small, and only opens up when the female laistrygonian giants are about to come up from the tunnels. "One of us should go there." Mary said. "Well, there's one of us who's small enough to fit the tunnels," Platina said, glancing at me. Then, Stephanie, Gary, Adam, Bella, Mary, Platina and the chipmunks looked at me. "What?" I asked. They just kept staring at me. "Ok, fine! I'll do it!" My friends cheered in excitement. Then I glanced at the chipmunks. "But I will need your help to guide me." I told the chipmunks. "Aww..." The chipmunks moaned. Apparently they have been living the life of a celebrity for quite a long time so that they're not accustomed to live in the wild anymore. "You guys should assist him." Platina said. "Sure thing!" Simon said, and Theodore right beside him. Meanwhile, Alvin headed straight for the tunnel, but he accidentally leaped too far, which makes the earth above it to collapse. "ALVIN!!!!" We all shouted at him. "Whoops... sorry." Alvin said. "Now what are we going to do?" I asked. "Well, it's easy." Alvin said, obviously trying to correct his mistakes. "Just find another tunnel, such as this." Alvin was about to jump to another hole while I grabbed his tail. "Hey! Let go of me!" Alvin shouted. "Alvin, this is just a waste of time, and a waste of time for my friend who is trapped below the tunnel! If you're going to be in this, you have to promise me that you will behave, because once we're down in the tunnel, just one tiny mistake cost the rest of us lives, you got it??" Alvin gulped, and nodded. "Good, now let's go." I said, letting the chipmunks to go into the tunnel first before I went into the tunnel. Once in the tunnel, I kept crawling but I light my head with light, and the chipmunks stared at me with surprise. "Well? Take me to Annabeth!" I demanded. So, the chipmunks continued to walk, while I have to crawl through the narrow passageways and listen carefully for some strange noises. The tunnel is only 50 centimeters in width and 40 centimeters in height, and it stretches for a long period of time. The chipmunks turned left, and I followed the chipmunks. Apparently, the chipmunks know what they're doing, so that it would be easy to find Annabeth. I turned left, right, right, left, left, right, and so on and so forth. There's no end in this tunnel, and every turn that I made leads to nowhere . Just then, as we made through the 400th turn, I saw Annabeth, tied up and gagged and lying on the earth. She seemed to be sleeping. I crawled beside her and undid her gag and her bonds that tied her feet and legs together. Annabeth seemed to be waking up, because she groaned and opened her eyes and looked at me, and she groaned. "Hello, Joshy." Annabeth said. "Annabeth!" Each of the chipmunks exclaimed simultaneously as they piled on Annabeth's back. "You're alright!" "What happened?" Annabeth asked. "I don't know, but we should get back up." I told her. "Up?" Annabeth asked, confused. "What do you mean?" "We are underground." I told her. That made Annabeth's eyes wide. "But don't worry." I told her. "We can get out of here. "How?" Annabeth asked. "I'm not like you, Joshy! My body proportion is big, and I would be likely stuck in the middle of the way. But you Josh, are small, and you can fit through the tunnel easily!" "It's not that bad, trust me." I said, before grabbing Annabeth's hand and we both crawled another hundred yards to get out of the tunnel. Just then, the tunnel gets smaller, which isn't a problem to me, but a big problem to Annabeth that's behind me. Annabeth yelled out. "Josh?" I can sense that she is in trouble, but given the fact that the tunnel is very small renders me cannot turn around. Only the chipmunks can. The chipmunks then ran up to Annabeth and started pulling her hands. Meanwhile, Annabeth grabbed onto my legs and told me to pull forward. It was quite a futile effort since we are getting nowhere. It is simply a matter of fact that Annabeth can't fit through the holes. But wait... if Annabeth can't fit through the holes, then how come Annabeth is trapped inside the tunnel that kept her captive? There must be a special way to get there, and I have to find out how. But it's already too late. I can't turn around, and neither can Annabeth. It is a dead end, and we're probably about 50 feet deep underground, which makes calling for help seems silly. I have an idea. I started crawling backwards, and telling Annabeth to crawl backwards a few steps or so. Annabeth knew instantly that I am devicing a plan to get out of here. I crawled back until the tunnel starts widening again. Then, with my open hands, I grabbed the little solid mud with my hands and grasp it and thrust my hand backward and let go of its contents. Then, I began to do the same thing over and over again until Annabeth is big enough to go through 5 meters of the tunnel. "That's just great, Josh!" Annabeth complained. "Now, do you expect that you can do that for all of the tunnels?" "I certainly can." I answered, while continued to scoop up the solid mud and putting it behind me. I have to be careful where I'm putting the mud because Annabeth is directly behind me, so I put it beside the walls of the tunnel. This process took a long time, but steadily and surely, we can see daylight, and we began to scream to indicate that we're here. I really hoped that the people on the surface can hear us. I looked at my wristwatch, and shine a light through it. It says 16:50, which means it's been quite a while since I've spent time in here. As soon as we're about 10 feet from the surface, I shouted. "HELP!!" Apparently, no one can hear me, so we decided to go up on our own. Apparently, the tunnels widened so there's no need for me to do the grabbing the mud and putting it behind me again, and as soon as I reached the top, I collapsed instantly. Mary's P.O.V We just watched from the distance that Josh had indeed rescued Annabeth, but Josh passed out immediately, so Platina ordered all of us to go back to camp to tend to Josh. I took the liberty of carrying him back to the camp. As soon as we got to the base camp, I immediately placed him down at his bed, and everyone gathered around Josh as he rested. Josh apparently is very tired after travelling kilometers under the tunnel, but the chipmunks were okay, but they had stopped running around and sat down beside the sleeping Josh, and Bella told the chipmunks that Josh is okay. Meanwhile, Annabeth is being taken care by Gary, who placed her on her sleeping mat. Annabeth is still conscious, sitting up straight, but as soon as she tried to lie down, her back hurts. I immediately approached her. "Annabeth, are you alright?" I asked her. Annabeth groaned, and as I am about to help her lie down, she held up her hand. "Yes, I'm fine." Annabeth said. "I just need to be slow to lie down for the moment, that's all." She said, as she slowly lowers her body into sleeping position. Meanwhile, I checked on Josh because his condition is more serious. He has slipped into a coma. I knelt beside him and placed a warm light above him so he would regenerate slowly. Gary and Adam also participated in waiting for Josh to wake. I allowed Stephanie to sat beside him and took care of him. Then the chipmunks.... Wait a minute. Where are the chipmunks? I hope they're not up to something bad. Just then, I saw a shadow forming on Josh's chest, and it appears to be a monster. Gary, Adam and Stephanie were already freaked out, but I and Platina knew better. "Alvin!" Me and Platina yelled out. Then, the shadow becomes smaller as Alvin landed on top of Josh's chest. "Ta-daa! The best performance by...." Before he could complete his sentence, Platina snatched him by his legs. Alvin is kicking and punching, but Platina waved her hand and a hamster ball encased Alvin, rendering him harmless. "Now that wasn't fun." Alvin moaned. "Now that would be your punishment since you cannot comply with the rules." Platina said. "You will be inside here for 3 hours. Anymore breach of the rules will result in you inside the hamster ball for longer periods of time." "Please! I won't be naughty anymore! I promise!" Alvin pleaded. "Just stay there for 3 hours, I don't want to see your wretched face for 3 hours." I think that Platina went a little too far, since Alvin is lamenting inside his hamsterball cage, and I can see Alvin's tears streaming down his cheeks. He has actually lamented after all! Anyways, I continued to look at Josh. It's too bad that he missed the show done on this very bed by Alvin or else he just might have laughed very hard and hurt his ribs. Josh is looking slightly better. His face looked more pink, and that indicates that his heart is pumping normally right now. I picked Josh up, and he gasped and started to cough mud out of his throat, but apparently it's just a very small amount of mud that is clogging in his throat, so I patted him on his back so all of the mud in his throat will come out. After he finished coughing, I brought him near me. "How are you feeling?" "Uhh.... dizzy?" Josh answered. "Good to have you back, Joshy!" I told him. "I was about to think that you're going to take ages to recover." "Well, the light above me kinda helped." Josh said, hugging me. "Thank you for caring for me." "No problem." I told him, then I placed him down on his bed and allowed Bella to tend to him. Stephanie's P.O.V I was on the beach with Gary and Adam. Adam created gentle waves in the ocean, and Gary and I seemed to enjoy it. Platina came to the beach with the hamster looking ball in her hand. She spins the ball and throw it at us. I caught it and decided to play a game called 'catch', but this time without punishments. I held the ball in my hands, and throw it at Adam. Once the ball is in mid-air, I noticed that the ball suddenly changed direction slightly. Adam held the ball in his hands and he throw it at Gary. Gary also held the hamster ball in his hands and he throw it back at me. Once I caught it, I can feel that this ball is literally shaking, like there's something inside this ball, but I cannot look inside because it's spray painted black, and there are only 4 very small holes that is even too small for me to peek inside. I got the feeling that I shouldn't even be using this ball to play catch, and I shake the ball and I heard voices inside. "Let me out! Let me out!" The voice is tiny, like a chipmunks squeak. I punched the hamster ball open and Alvin burst out of the ball, crying. "Platina has been very cruel to me!" Alvin said. "She stuffed me inside this ball for...." Alvin didn't get to finish his sentence as he collapsed in my hands. The others ran up to me. "Uh oh... looks like Platina doesn't like Alvin at all." Adam muttered beside me. I looked at Adam's wristwatch. It says 18:20, which means we have to go back inside since it's already dark outside. So, I told everyone to go back inside the house and as soon as we were on the front door, Platina stepped on the doorstep. "Well?" Platina asked. "Well, we're back from having some fun, and..." "Where is Alvin?" Platina asked. I looked left and right as we passed the chipmunk behind our backs. I don't want anything to happen to Alvin just because Platina hated her. We both turned and formed into a circle to discuss things. "Great, Platina is asking for Alvin." Adam said, holding out the scared Alvin. "I guess Platina isn't playing games when it comes to rules." I said. "But she didn't punish us." Gary mentioned. "That's because we didn't break any of the rules." I told them. "So? Alvin didn't break any of the rules either, and he gets punished for what Platina says for breaking the rules." Adam said. "That's just plain unfair..." I said to them, but then I just realized that Platina had secretly joined our conversation. "Well, Alvin broke the rule for invading Josh's privacy and freaking people out. Alvin needs to be taught some manners." Platina told us. "But putting Alvin inside a hamsterball and let him to suffer isn't the right way to teach him manners." Gary told her. "He's just kids, along with the rest of his group." Platina looked confused. "Alvin? a kid?" Stephanie, Adam and Gary nodded. "Well, please do come inside." Platina said. "We have dinner set up." As soon as we entered the wooden door, I saw Josh, Mary, Annabeth and Bella are ready in their dining table. Platina, me, Gary and Adam came inside to enjoy dinner. We were greeted by our friends, including Josh, who had quite recovered from his lethargy, but is still a little tired. Annabeth, on the other hand, has fully recovered from her wound and her lethargy from following me through the tunnels. "Now, let us eat." Platina said. Then, we all eat. Josh's P.O.V I grabbed some bun, beef, tomato, cheese, and vegetables to make a burger. As soon as I made it, I eat it and grabbed another one. I have to make sure that it's small enough so it would fit my mouth when I ate it. I grabbed a steak and cut it up first and eat the steak. It tastes very good. I took a couple of gulps from the cup that is provided. The water tastes okay, there's no poison or anything. Just like everyday, I am the first one to finish eating and settled outside the camp. I get to enjoy the beautiful view of the pacific island. Just then, Stephanie approached me, her face filled with delight. "Josh! Guess what?" "What?" "Hippolyta and her friends are making their way here!" Stephanie said. I sighed my relief. It looks like we're getting rescued after all. I really wished that they would be fast coming in here so that we don't have to wait for another day since we're already rotting in this so called island. I am already homesick. Just thinking about Camp Half-Blood makes me want to cry. The sweet smell of the strawberry fields, and the activities we do in the camp, it all seems very far away. Category:Josh-Son Of Hyperion Category:Stranded in the Pacific Category:Fan Fiction